Ten Games to Start Your Game Collection (And Twenty More)

Randolph Pub Ludique's games library. That's a lot of games. 

One of the most common topics I see in board gaming communities like DFW Nerd Night, The Boardgame Group, and /r/boardgames is about folks who are new to the hobby and want to expand their board game collection, but aren't sure what to buy. We're in a "golden age" of tabletop gaming, and with 1,500 new games being released each year, there are plenty to choose from and plenty of ways to evaluate them.

I've crowdsourced this list by polling the members of DFW Nerd Night, and used that list, plus some of my own discretion, to put together "Ten Games to Start Your Game Collection". It's important to note that these aren't the ONLY ten games I think our new friend should purchase, just the first ten that should give her plenty to play for the foreseeable future.

First Impressions of Epic, by Rob Daugherty

$15 tuck box with four factions? Seems good...

Epic isn't just an exclamation anymore; it's also the next in the line of Rob Dougherty's genre-defining card games, which includes Star Realms and various Ascension expansions. Epic's not a deck-builder, so that's new territory from one of the hobby's giants, but the rest of the game will look very familiar to fans of Rob's previous work.

Epic was delivered to Kickstarter backers this weekend, and I've played about 10 games, including a quick two-player draft session. I've already had a half-dozen heated conversations on such subjects as "is it good" and "of course it's good" with my close gaming friends (also backers), so it's time for a quick first impression for those who aren't getting KS copies, or who may have a chance to pick up the game elsewhere. 

2015 Origins Awards Announced, and My Predictions

The nominees for the 2015 Origins Awards have been announced, and I'm surprised and pleased to see that I've played most of the games in the board and card game categories. Given my penchant for expressing opinions about games I've played, I decided to do a quick review of the nominees, and my make predictions for the winners. 

Some of these games were released prior to 2014, so I'm not sure exactly what the nomination criteria are, but I believe the lists represent a fairly well-considered splice of recent gaming releases, so I've got no beef with the nominations. 

If'd like to see the full set of nominees, click here! For my consideration of the nominees, and my predictions, continue! 

Gen Con Interview - Rob Dougherty of Star Realms

We caught Rob Dougherty of Star Realms fame in between mobs of customers, so we asked him to give us a quick 5-minute chat about the game, future plans, and his role in development. There's some nice info about the recently released apps for iOS and Android also!

For a full playlist of interviews from Gen Con, click here! 

Star Realms, by Rob Dougherty

Star Realms places you in the command of a fleet of ships preparing to do battle on a galactic scale. In this deck-building game, players compete head to head to eliminate their opponent(s) and be the last man (or woman!) standing. This is a departure from the victory-point-based scoring system in most deck-building games like Dominion, DC Deckbuilder, and Ascension, and introduces a few mostly-new wrinkles to a genre I greatly enjoy.

From the co-founder of Ascension (and a successful professional Magic player, at that) this game is well-designed, easy to teach, and easy to play. I submit Star Realms as a game that should be in your fleet - so read on, space captain!